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IAEG2006 Paper number 819

© The Geological Society of London 2006 1

Rainfall triggered flow-like landslides: Understanding from southernhills of Kathmandu, Nepal and Northern Shikoku, Japan

RANJAN KUMAR DAHAL1, SHUICHI HASEGAWA2, MINORU YAMANAKA3

& KATSUHIRO NISHINO4

1 Dept. of Safety System Construction Engineering, Kagawa University. (e-mail: [email protected])(Department of Geology, Tribhuvan University, Tri-Chandra Campus, Kathmandu, Nepal)

2 Dept. of Safety System Construction Engineering, Kagawa University.(e-mail: [email protected])

3 Dept. of Safety System Construction Engineering, Kagawa University.(e-mail: [email protected])

4 Graduate School of Engineering, Kagawa University. (e-mail: [email protected])

Abstract: Flow-like landslides triggered by rainfall are very prominent in Nepal and Shikoku, Japan. In July2002, many landslides occurred in the southern hills of the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, because of torrentialrainfall. A single flow-like landslide occurred at Matatirtha, a small village situated at the south marginal hill ofKathmandu, killing 18 people who lived at the foot of the hill. Much damage was caused to roads and housesbecause of landslides and debris flows in small streams.

Similarly, in August, September and October 2004, strong typhoon hit the area of northern Sikoku, Japanand extensive damage occurred on hill slopes and some human casualties were also reported. Field observationshowed that in northern Sikoku, many flow-like landslides occur in the thin weathering profile of igneous andsedimentary rocks, as well as in old debris materials. However, in the southern hills of Kathmandu, flow-likelandslides occurred in weathered debris.

During the investigation, the geotechnical properties of landslide materials were determined in thelaboratory. The volume of material involved in some of the flows was calculated as per average thickness of thesoil cover and area of failure. Likewise, rainfall threshold value for Kathmandu and Northern Shikoku is alsoevaluated. From the field investigations, it is recommended that human habitation at the foot of hills should belegally regulated by the government to reduce death from flow-like landslides triggered by torrential rainfall. Itis also recommended that landslide hazard maps need to be quantified to include landslide risk assessment andmanagement for flow like landslide also which help to develop early warning systems for flow-like landslidedisasters.

Résumé: Couler-comme des éboulements déclenchés par des précipitations soyez très en avant au Népal et leShikoku, Japon. En juillet 2002, beaucoup d'éboulements produit dans les collines méridionales du capitalnépalais, Katmandou, en raison de précipitations torrentielles. Un simple couler-comme l'éboulement s'estproduit chez Matatirtha, a petit village situé à la colline marginale du sud de Katmandou, tuant 18 peuplez qui avécu au pied de la colline. Beaucoup de dommages ont été causés aux routes et maisons en raison deséboulements et des écoulements de débris dans de petits jets.

De même, en août, septembre et octobre 2004, l'ouragan fort a frappé le secteur de Sikoku nordique, leJapon et les dommages étendus se sont produits sur des pentes de colline et quelques accidents humains ont étéégalement rapportés. L'observation de champ a prouvé que dans Sikoku nordique, beaucoup couler-comme deséboulements produisez-vous dans le profil survivant à mince des roches ignées et sédimentaires, aussi biencomme en vieux matériaux de débris. Cependant, dans les collines méridionales de Katmandou, couler-commedes éboulements s'est produit en débris survécus à.

Pendant la recherche, le géotechnique des propriétés des matériaux d'éboulement ont été déterminées dansle laboratoire. Le volume du matériel impliqué dans certains des écoulements a été calculé selon la moyenneépaisseur de la couverture de sol et du domaine de l'échec. De même, seuil de précipitations la valeur pourKatmandou et Shikoku nordique est également évaluée. Du champ des investigations, on lui recommandequ'habitation humaine au pied de collines si est légalement réglé par le gouvernement pour réduire la mort decouler-comme éboulements déclenchés par des précipitations torrentielles. On lui recommande égalementqu'éboulement des cartes de risque doivent être mesurées pour inclure la évaluation des risques d'éboulement etgestion pour l'écoulement comme l'éboulement également qui aident à développer la détection précocesystèmes pour couler-comme des désastres d'éboulement.

Keywords: Landslide, weathering, failures, igneous rock, soils

INTRODUCTIONSlope failure broadly described as landslide is a consequence of a large mass surges down slope in response to the

gravity. The style of mass movement is generally defined according to flow velocity, volume of the material involved,shear rates, and shear strength of the materials. The fluid and its interaction with the solid materials provide broadervariations in its style. Experiences show that landslide occurrences on hill slopes have very close relationship with


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availability of water. As a result, many varieties of landslides occur as a consequence of heavy rainfall in tropical andtemperate climatic zones (Jacob and Weatherly, 2003). Flow-like landslides triggered by rainfall occur in mostmountainous landscape of the world (Iverson, 2000). They pose a significant natural hazard and they have a highdamaged potential (Brenner, 2003). There are many statistically meaningful analysis has been published todemonstrate threshold value of rainfall and landslide triggering (Caine 1980; Keefer et al., 1987; Wilson andWieczorek 1995; Terlien 1998; Crosta 1998; Pasuto & Silvano 1998; Guzzetti et al., 2000; Crozier 1999; Glade et al.,2000; Wieczorek et al., 2000; Aleotti 2004; Guzzetti et al 2004; Mikos, Cetina & Brilly 2004; Shakoor & Smithmyer2005; Xie, Esaki & Cai 2005). The first study about rainfall threshold was done by Caine in 1980. In this study, heinvestigated total 73 shallow landslides of world and by the help of local precipitation records and he postulated arelationship I = 14.82 D-0.39, where I is rainfall intensity (mm/h) and D is rainfall duration (h). But within last fewyears, there are many works available in relation to threshold rainfall for triggering landslide with hydroclimaticcondition, antecedent rainfall (Crozier 1999; Glade, Crozier & Smith 2000) and hydraulic conductivity (Terlien 1998).Keeping view of these contexts, this paper will describe some of scenario of rainfall triggered flow-like landslideoccurred in Kathmandu, Nepal and Shikoku, Japan.

RAINFALL TRIGGERED FLOW-LIKE LANDSLIDE IN NEPALThe Kingdom of Nepal is sandwiched between Peoples’ Republic of China in the north and India in the south, east

and west. Nepal is situated in the center of the long Himalayan concave chain, and is almost rectangular in shape withabout 870 km length in the NWW-SEE and 130 to 260 km in N-S direction. The Himalaya has one of the mostdynamic and fragile mountain landscapes. It is a live mountain with active tectonics (Figure 1). The seasonal monsoonrains, intense but improper land use practices both for cultivation and construction ensure that the Nepalese Himalayasare among the most unstable landscapes worldwide. The inherently weak geological characteristics of the rocks andsoils have made the Himalaya fundamentally a very fragile mountain (Upreti 2001). The Himalaya is very vulnerableto natural and common hazards such as landslides, debris flows, and soil erosion primarily triggered by extensiverainfall of monsoon (Figure 2 and Figure 3). Moreover central Nepal, including Kathmandu, gets high intensity ofrainfall than other part of Nepal. The combination of the weak geology and the monsoon climate makes eachphysiographic zone of Nepal very hazardous.

Figure 1. Cross section of Nepal Himalaya, MCT (Main Central Thrust), MBT (Main Boundary Thrust) and MFT (main frontalThrust) make Himalaya tectonically active and dynamic mountain of world (modified after Upreti and Yoshida, 2005 and Kizaki,1994).

Figure 2. Mean annual precipitation map and highest 24-hour precipitation (mm) Map of Nepal (DHM 2003)

Although, Nepal has problem of rainfall triggered landslide, still there are no any significance works to identify thethreshold value of rainfall to create shallow failure. The shallow landslide on slope that generally flows down to slopein very high velocity is found to be most devastating landslide in Nepal. Such landslide is fundamentally debris flow(Hungr et al 1984; Coussot and Meunier 1996; Guadango et al 1999, Hungr 1995; Hungr 2000; Hungr et al 2001;Wen and Aydin 2005; Jacob, Hungr &Thomson 1997) and recently very famous as flow like landslide (Dai, Lee &Wang 1999, Iverson, 2000, Hungr et al 2001, Hungr 2003, Dai, Lee & Wang 2003, Jacob and Weatherly, 2003, Maletet al 2004). Some attempt has been done to describe the threshold value of Himalayan flow-like landslides (Caine &


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Mool 1982, Dahal and Kafle 2003, Gabet et al, 2004, Khanal and Watanabe 2005) but it is found to be insufficientbecause of extremely varied site condition.

In Nepal, on an average 260 people lost their lives every year and about 30,000 families affected annually. In 2002,from mid July to late September, 52 districts affected by landslides and floods, 444 people were killed, about 44 weremissed, more than 100 were injured, more than 55,000 families were affected (Dahal and Kafle, 2003). Thisphenomenon is also experienced in monsoon of the year 2003. In the year 2003, landslides triggered by rainfallextensively damaged the Mugling-Narayanghat road. More than 200 landslides are noticed in this road section. Inwhich more than 60% of landslides belong to flow-like nature.

Flow-like landslide in southern hills of KathmanduIn Nepal, it is felt that flow-like landslides affect human settlements, bridge and roads by destroying and burying

(Figure 3). In the year 2002, many flow-like landslides occurred along southern marginal hills of Kathmandu anddamaged many infrastructures. Single flow-like landslide occurred in Matatirtha, a small and beautiful village situatedat the south western marginal hill of the capital city Kathmandu killed 18 people inhabiting on the base of the hill(Figure 4 and Figure 5). Although some more flow-like landslides occurred in southern marginal hills, the Matatirthawas most devastating one. Some of flow-like landslides also damaged road of hills (Figure 6) but casualty was notreported.

Figure 3. Diagrammatic indication of a typical flow-like landslide feature in Nepal Himalaya

Figure 4. Flow-like landslide of Matatirtha, July 2002, site after 40 hours


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Figure 5. Location Map of Matatirtha flow-like landslide, other flow-like are also shown in map

RAINFALL TRIGGERED FLOW-LIKE LANDSLIDE IN SHIKOKU, JAPANShikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan (18,800 sq km) and situated at south of the island of

Honshu and east of the island of Kyushu, between the Inland Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Shikoku is 225 km long and50 km to 150 km wide. It is a heavily forested mountainous region of Japan. The highest peak of Shikoku is MountIshizuchi (1,982 m).

Shikoku can be roughly divided into three geological zones (Figure 7). They are Ryoke, Sambagawa-Chichibu andShimanto belts from north to south, respectively. The three zones are bounded by the northerly dipping two masterfaults. These are the Median Tectonic Line (MTL) and the Butsuzo Tectonic Line (BTL) from north to south,respectively. The Ryoke belt in Shikoku topographically divided into three zones: Seto Inland Sea, recent fan andhills having maximum altitude about 1000 m. This belt consists of mainly of the Late Cretaceous Ryoke graniticrocks, the Latest Cretaceous sedimentary rocks (Izumi Group) and Miocene volcanic rocks (Sanuki Group).Cretaceous granite is widely distributed in Chugoku to the north of Seto Island Sea. The Median Tectonic Line (MTL)topographically marks a distinct sharp boundary of Shikoku Range. Shikoku Range having maximum altitude ofnearly 2000 m is occupied by the Sambagawa-Chichibu Belt. The Sambagawa Belt is composed of the low-gradeSambagawa metamorphic rocks. The Chichibu Belt is mainly composed of the Carboniferous to Jurassic sedimentaryrocks and low-grade Sambagawa metamorphic rocks.

Figure 6. Flow-like landslide on roadside slopes of southern hills of Kathmandu, triggered by Rainfall of July 2002


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Figure 7. Geological Map of Shikoku Region (modified after Hasegawa and Saito, 1991 and profile of Shikoku Region, modifiedafter Kikkawa et al, 2003)

The Shimanto Belt consists of the Cretaceous and Paleogene sedimentary rocks and this belt occupies southern twopeninsulas protruding out into the Pacific Ocean. The middle Miocene granitic and partially gabbroic rocks aresporadically distributed along the axes of Muroto and Ashizuri peninsulas.

There is almost no settlement in hills but hill of base are considerably populated. Hills are almost covered by thickforest of subtropical broad leaf trees, Japanese cedars as well as few Japanese bamboos and all landslides are occurswithin the forest and flow-like landslide usually bring not only soil and rock debris but also huge amount of bamboosand cedar tress debris.

Flow-like landslide in northern ShikokuIn the year 2004, Japan was hit by 10 typhoons in a period of 3 months from August to October. The typhoons

were very devastating as they bring tremendous rainfall, often exceeding 100 mm in one hour. Previously there aresome typhoon events in Northern Shikoku Region and extensively damage the whole area (Table 1).

There is good rainfall measurement system in Shikoku Region and it is available on the internet also. Duringtyphoon of 2004 August to October, there is extreme rainfall occurred in central northern Shikoku and north eastShikoku (Figure 8, Figure 9 and Table 2).

Shikoku Island was hit by six typhoons last year and Northen Shikoku (mainly Ehime and Kagawa) was sufferedby loss of lives and property due to many flow-like landslide induced by typhoon rainfall. Because of good rainfalldata logging system of Japan, it is noticed that hourly rainfalls exceeding 50 mm and total 24-hours rainfalls as muchas 400 mm were main cause of slope failures at different locations in north Shikoku. The hardest-hit area was Niihamaof Ehime Prefecture and Moriyama and Monnyu of Kagawa Prefecture (Table 2 and Figure 10). The flows likelandslide and debris flows near the densely populated hill bases took lives of more than 30 people.

Table 1. Main events of typhoon in Kagawa, north east Shikoku (Yokihiro, 2005)

S.N. Year Date Name of Typhoon Death Missed Injured Damagedhouse

Partly damagedhouse

1 1899 8/28 Typhoon of 8/28 307 10 955 7015 42862 1934 9/21 Moroto Typhoon 18 1 30 938 7283 1945 9/17-18 Makurazaki Typhoon 13 0 13 2204 3804 1959 9/26 Toyamaru Typhoon 8 7 5 275 4305 1974 7/6 Typhoon 8 29 0 27 51 2166 1976 9/8-9/13 Typhoon 17 50 0 126 287 3217 2004 10/20 Typhoon 23 11 0 15 49 70


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Figure 8. Cumulative Rainfall of October 19 to 21, 2004 in Shikoku Region (Yokihiro, 2005)

Figure 9. Buried village in Moriyuki (see Figure 7 for location)

Figure 10. Rainfall triggered debris slide and flow-like landslide in Moriyuki area (north east Shikoku) and Niihama City (middlenorth Shikoku)

There is much local scale damage in highway and forest areas around Takamatsu City (regional headquarter ofShikoku). Middle Kagawa is also affected by the typhoon and there are many slides in forest area also (see Figure 7).Takamibo forest area and Mineyama landslide near to Central Takamatsu are some examples. Landslides occurred atbase of hills in Toyohama city (Figure 11 and see Figure 7 also) are some other examples of flow like landslides ofwest Kagawa.


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Table 2. Four typhoon disasters in Kagawa (north east Shikoku) in the year 2004 (Yokihiro, 2005)

S.N. Typhoon No. Date Death Injured Damagedhouses

Half damagedhouse

Partly damagedhouse

1 Typhoon 15 8/17-18 5 0 0 4 32 Typhoon 16 8/30 3 6 1 8 2243 Typhoon 21 9/29 0 0 1 2 404 Typhoon 23 10/20 11 15 49 70 155

Figure 11. Rainfall triggered flow-like landslide and in Kagawa (Takamibo, Mineyama and Toyohama)

NATURE OF SLIDES AND MATERIALS INVOLVED IN SOUTHERN HILLS OFKATHMANDU

Geological characteristicsKathmandu valley is surrounded by high rising mountain ranges, such as Shivapuri (2732 m) in the north and

Phulchauki (2762 m) in the south east and Chandragiri in south west. The Kathmandu valley comprises of quaternarysediments on top of basement rocks. The basement rock consists of Phulchauki Group and Bhimphedi Group of theKathmandu Complex (Stöcklin and Bhattarai, 1977 and Stöcklin 1980) and is formed by Precambrian to Devonianrocks. The rocks of Phulchauki Group and Bhimphedi Group together form the Kathmandu Complex, and tectonicallyinterpreted as thrust mass (allochthonous). The rocks of Kathmandu Complex along with the underlyingautochthonous Nawakot Complex constitute the Mahabharat Synclinorium. The axis of this synclinorium passes alongthe Phulchowki-Chandragiri Range (southern hills of the Kathmandu valley). The Bhimphedi Group consists ofrelatively high-grade metamorphic rocks of Precambrian age whereas Phulchowki Group comprises of weaklymetamorphosed sediments of early to middle Palaeozoic age. The rock consists of intensely folded and faulted meta-sediments such as phyllites, schists, slates, limestone and marbles. Southern hills of Kathmandu valley mainly consistsof limestone rocks of Phulchauki Group (Figure 12).

Figure 12. Simplified geological map of Nepal (Dahal, 2005) and Kathmandu area (Stöcklin, 1980)

Precipitation of the areaFrom the meteorological point f view, the month of July is very critical for the southern hills. There are not much

rain gauge station and hourly rainfall data is also not available. Most nearest rain gauge station from the failure area isin Thankot (situated at about 1.5 to 3 km aerial distance from Matatirtha and other slides see Figure 12). Plotting oflast 32 years rainfall data of south and south-west Kathmandu reveals that month of July of every year has been facingmaximum rainfall (Figure 13). Rainfall data recorded by the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DMG) at itsThankot station is 300.1 mm at 24 hr in the day of major failures, i.e. 23 July 2002 (Figure 14).


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Figure 13. Mean monthly rainfall pattern of Thankot area for a period of 32 years (1971-2002)

Surface geology and geotechnical characteristics of materialsThe southern hills are mainly covered by old weathered debris deposit over limestone and thin layer of residual soil

on top. Almost all landslides in southern hills were noticed mainly on weathered colluvial materials. The large andmost catastrophic Matatirtha landslide was also occurred on weathered debris materials. Geomorphologically, allfailure sites were noticed in gullies. The topographical map and aerial photo of the area clearly show typical dry gullyhaving thick weathered colluvium are main failed slopes.

Figure 14. Rainfall pattern of Thankot area in the year 2002

Geotechnical properties of the both deposited debris and colluvial materials of the slope are identified as far aspracticable. The altered and reworked soils, which often form the original soil cover at the heads of gullies, have widegrain size distributions (Figure 15) and have significant clay fractions.

Figure 15. Grain size distribution pattern of debris and undisturbed soil in the Matatirtha area

The thickness of soil is also varied from crown part to lowest part of failure in all failure. At crown part of manyfailures, the thin veneer of porous silty gravel of thickness 0.5 m to 1.5 m is found over the extensively jointedcalcareous rock. In almost all slides, the soil thickness at end of failure zone is 4 to 5.5 m. Unified Soil Classificationof soil shows that the soil type of the all failure area ranged between GM-GC to SM-ML with considerable amount ofgravel. The plastic limits of the soils from different locations vary from 20% to 35% whereas the liquid limit of thesoil generally varied from 20% to 45%. Almost all failure mass plots of liquid limit and plasticity index (Figure 16) liebelow the A-Line of Casagrande Plasticity Chart (USBR, 1963). The calculated dry unit weight of the soil is rangedbetween 15 kN/m3 to 19 kN/m3. The shear strength parameters from undisturbed samples were not determinable due toconsiderable amount of rock fragment in samples. So the shear strength test carried out on reconstituted specimen andvariable friction angle value ranged from 25o to 30o. The value of apparent cohesion also ranged from 4 kN/m2 to7 kN/m2.


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Figure 16. Plot of liquid limit and plasticity index in plasticity chart of Casagrande

Failure processes with exampleThe steep slope of upper reaches of each landslides containing thin veneer of soil which was almost liquefied

during the huge rainfall and plucked from the underlain bed rock. Before failure at crown, the pervious soil continuedinfiltrating rainwater, also helped to generate almost saturation condition on the thick colluvial soil of down slope. Thedown slope in each failure has a gully and without any outlet system in lower reaches. As a result, the saturation ofslope materials was initiated from down to up. In each slide it is very clearly observed that debris slide first occurredat crown part and it scrape off the almost saturated thick soil of down hill and whole mass of the channel begins toflow like a liquid as per the liquefaction flow rule (Darve, 1996). Such flows continued erode its route down to thedeposition area. In case of Matatirtha landslide, debris flow hit the whole settlement of base and killed 18 people. Italso dammed the small stream (Seti Devi River, see Figure 7) which was opened after few minutes. The evidence ofliquefaction at the site was seen on toe part and cultivated land. The toe and cultivated land were almost cushioned byslurry of debris. The schematic view of the debris flow development pattern is shown in Figure 17.

Figure 17. Schematic view of formation of flow at Matatirtha Landslide, an example of flow pattern in of flow-like landslidesouthern hills of Kathmandu

From the study of flow-like landslides of southern hills of Kathmandu, it is felt that there are some parameterswhich caused the abrupt loss of shear strength of colluvium deposit and they are listed below.

• High intensity of rainfall• Steep slope (>60o) of upper reaches covered by thin veneer of silty gravel cover• High infiltration rate at upper reaches• Localized slide on the upper reaches of the slope• Gully with thick clayey and silty gravel deposits• Encroachment of channel in lower reaches by cultivation practice

Due to large in nature, the flow velocity of Matatirtha landsilde is also approximately estimated by the followingequation by considering simple infinite model for liquefied debris and correcting value of g with slope angle (Hungr2003, Dahal and Kafle 2003 and Poudel 2004).

1/2mv2≥m g sinβ h

where, m is mass, v is velocity, g is gravitational acceleration, β is slope angle and h is heightFrom the relationship, the minimum flow velocity of the Matatirtha before hitting the settlement was ≥40 m/s.

According to Cruden and Varnes (1996) landslide scale, the Matatirtha landslide is Extremely Rapid Landslide.Similarly, time elapsed of flow is also estimated by simple equation of motion. It is predicted that after initiation ofslide at upper reaches, minimum time taken to hit the first house settlement was just 8 sec. Interview with the villagerwho was able to escape from the Matatirtha landslide also confirmed middling accuracy of the timing. The volume ofmaterials displaced in Zone I and Zone II of Matatirtha landslide (see Figure 17) are also calculated duringinvestigation by the help of total area and average depth of failed materials in the channel. In debris slide zone near tocrown about 3100 m3 of the debris was failed whereas materials rolled down from this zone entrained approximately5860 m3 of colluvial materials other failure zone of down slope (see Figure 17). In the Zone I, the yield rate (Hungr etal, 1984 and Hungr, 2003) of landslide is 20.6 m3/m and in Zone II it is 63.6 m3/m. The yield rates support the quitewiden gully resulted after landslide.


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NATURE OF SLIDES AND MATERIALS INVOLVED IN NORTHERN SHIKOKU

Geological characteristicsGeologically, northern Sikoku is belongs to Ryoke Belt and Samagawa-Chichiba Belt (Figure 7). It consists of

Miocene volcanic rocks, Cretaceous granite, and trough filled turbidites (sandstone and mudstone) of Izumi Group.The Izumi Group is adjacent in south to one of the prominent tectonic lines in the Shikoku Region called MedianTectonic Line (MTL). Middle part of Shikoku consists of green and black schist of Sambagawa-Chichiba Belt. Mostof flow-like are found in Ryoke Belt. Surprisingly, in Kagawa area, the landslides are found in volcanic rock andgranite except in Toyohama (sandstone with frequent shale layers). Although the rainfall amount is same in southernpart of Moriyuki, landslides were not occurred in zone of Izumi Group (Sanuki Range). But, in same zone, there aremany landslides in Toyohama and Niihama area (see Figure 7). Basically, landslides are generally noticed onweathered profile of granitic and volcanic rocks. Similalry, most of the failed slopes in Toyohama and Niihama arenoticed in thin layers of weathered sandstone or a stiff layer of clay resulted from decomposition of the layers of shale.Although number of landslides occurrences as per rock type are not recorded, the field observation clearly shows thatlikelihood of rainfall triggered flow-like landslide in northern Shikoku is more in volcanic rock and granitic rock thansedimentary rock. This phenomenon is also well described by Dai et al (1999) for the Lantasu Island of Hong Kongduring study of rainfall triggered landslide in igneous rock terrain.

Precipitation of the areaFrom the meteorological point of view, the month of August, September and October is very critical for the hills of

northern Shikoku. There is very good rainfall data recording system in Shikoku in comparison to Nepal. There aremany rain gauge stations and hourly rainfall data is also available. Rain gauge station in Moriyuki is 700 m far(Kusaka Pass) from the failure area and Monnyu area has rain gauge station. Thus, rainfall correlation during failuretime is possible. Rainfall data of Typhoon 23 are presented in Figure 18 and Figure 19 for Moriyuki and Niihama arearespectively.

Surface geology and geotechnical characteristics of materialsThe hills of northern Shikoku are mainly covered by thin (<2.0 m) residual soil over igneous rock and sedimentary

rock. Almost all landslides in were noticed mainly on residual soils.The large flow-like landslides in Moriyuki area are also occurred on residual materials. Geomorphologically, the

all failure sites are located in gullies or concave slope. Geotechnical properties of the both deposited debris andresidual soil materials of the slope are identified as far as practicable. The soils of Monnyu, Moriyuki and middleKagawa have wide grain size distributions (Figure 20) and have significant sand fractions because of weatheringproduct of igneous rocks. Likewise soils of Toyohama and Niihama are rich with clay fraction because of weatheringproduct of sedimentary rock mainly shale.

Figure 18. Rainfall pattern in Monnyu and Moriyuki area during typhoon of October 20, 2004, see Figure 10 to get information ofarea A and B for plot of Moriyuki


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Figure 19. Rainfall in Niihama area during typhoon of September 29 2004 (Modified after Bhandary & Yatabe, 2005)

Failure ProcessesThere were hundreds of failure spots, most of which were concentrated over the hills near Niihama city, Moriyuki,

Monnyu and Middle Kagawa. Similarly, More than 80% of failures have length less than 30 m and more than 50% ofslides has width less than 10 m. Likewise more than 60% of failure is occurred in slope angle 30o-40o. The changes innegative pore-water pressures associated with heavy rainfalls are the main causes of numerous slope failures that oftenturn into debris flows or mudflows during typhoon seasons in the mountains of Shikoku (Bhandary et al 2005).

Figure 20. Grain size distribution of slope, debris and deposited materials in Monnyu area and it shows that slope materials hasconsiderable amount of clay.

From the field observation, it is realized that all landslide in igneous and sedimentary terrain are begin first asdebris slide and on the route of flow, the failed material scrape off more materials and flow became more energeticand voluminous. Thus, more disasters are seen on settlement of hill base around Niihama and Moriyuki. In all slides,most failures that turned into flow-like landslides are found as surface failure nature with a maximum depth up to 1.5m (Figure 21 and Figure 22). Some debris slides depth in Moriyuki area is less than 0.5 m (Figure 23). From the fieldsurvey, it is also confirmed that the top layer soil is comparatively loose.

Some of landslides in northern Shikoku also are found to be more voluminous and energetic. Some has earthquantity more than 2400 m3 (in Monnyu area). Because of less height of failure, maximum velocity of flow iscalculated as up to 25 m/s. Likewise, it is felt that the failure of surface layers of slopes in northern Shikoku is mainlyinfluenced by the slope parameters such as rock type, depth of loose soil layer, slope inclination, length of slope, etc.,and the soil parameters such as coefficient of permeability, water storage capacity, strength parameters.

Figure 21. Variation of depth of failure in Niihama area ((Modified after Bhandary & Yatabe, 2005)


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Figure 22. Variation of depth of failure in Moriyuki area (see Figure 7 for reference of area A, B, C and D)

Figure 23. Thin soil cover in one of the debris slides in Moriyuki

CONCLUSIONSFrom this comparative study of Kathmandu and northern Shikoku following conclusions are made.

� It is felt that rainfall triggered flow-like landslide is frequent phenomena of Nepal but comparatively Shikokuis not facing the problem time to time.

� Rainfall triggered landslide is more common in terrain of igneous rock in comparison to sedimentary rock.Thus, there is not so much landslide in southern hills of Kathmandu as in northern Shikoku although there is aheavy rainfall event in Kathmandu every year. Same phenomenon is seen in less weathered sedimentaryterrain of northern Shikoku.

� From rainfall data of Shikoku, it is felt that generally if the cumulative rainfall of one day is reached near to 120 mm shallow debris slides will be started in terrain of igneous rock and weathered sedimentary whereasflow-like landslides will be began if cumulative rainfall is reached near to 200 mm in a day. Similarly, debrisflow as mixture of huge rock boulders start to flow on slope after 600 mm of cumulative rainfall as inMoriyuki. Nevertheless, this value of rainfall is more dependent of antecedent soil moisture condition. Effectof which is clearly seen in failures of Niihama city, where more extensive failure occurred in sedimentaryrocks than other parts because of more than 100 mm of previous day rainfall. In the case of southern hills ofKathmandu, major failures occurred in the time between 11 PM to 1 AM, so from rainfall data, it can bepredicted that if cumulative rainfall of 24-hours is more than 260 mm, flow like landslide will be occurred andfor shallow debris slide, this value can be ranged between 230 to 250 mm. In other part of Nepal, also if thesoil is thick colluvium deposit, this value of threshold rainfall is 230 mm (Khanal and Watanabe 2005). Itseems that both southern hills of Kathmandu and Northern hills of Shikoku do not agree the rainfall thresholdvalues established by Caine (1980) and it is very clear that the threshold value of rainfall for shallow as wellas flow-like sliding is more dependent on antecedent rainfall, soil depth and slope angle.

� Hills of both area (Kathmandu and northern Shikoku) have good vegetation and it is felt that vegetation playan important role in distribution of flow-like landslides. It is observed that on the base of hills at Toyohama ,some of flows were stopped only because of forest of bamboo and cedar trees.

� Detail geotechnical study of flow-like landslide events is necessary to evaluate the effects of surface-layerdepth, slope inclination, and precipitation pattern on the pore water pressure development, which isresponsible for the loss of negative pore-water pressure (or the suction) as well as reduction of effective stress.It is therefore essential to carry out study on various aspects of slope failures as well as rainwater infiltrationmechanism that led to destructive debris flows during heavy rainfall.

• It is also felt that human inhabitation practice on old fan deposit and immediate base of hill should beregularized by government through separate law to decrease death from debris flow triggered by torrentialrainfall.


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• From this study, it is also concluded that landslide hazard map should be quantified towards landslide riskassessment and management for rainfall triggered flow-like landslide also which decisively provides fruitfulupshot to early warning system of flow-like landslide disasters.

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to M.Sc. second year’s students of Central Department of Geology, Tribhuvan University,Nepal (2002 batch) for providing extensive help in field work and laboratory works in Nepal. Similarly, Ms. Seiko Tsutura isthankfully acknowledged for technical supports.

Corresponding author: Mr Ranjan Kumar Dahal, Dept. of Safety System Construction Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,Kagawa University, 2217-20, Hayashi-cho, Takamatsu City, 761-0396, Japan. Tel: +819082858058. (Department of Geology,Tribhuvan University, Tri-Chandra Campus, Kathmandu, Nepal). Email: [email protected].

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